Chains of Reality: Genderbended
by Exotos135
Summary: Multiverse theory states that there are multiple dimensions, or universes, in all of existence. For every prime dimension, there is at least one counterpart dimension. And in many cases, there's at least one dimension where the genders are reversed. But... what if there was more to it?


**Alright, this probably comes a little bit out of left field, but this was an idea I had on my mind for a long time, and I did want to try it out to some extent, so I decided to write a one-shot to explore this interesting what-if:**

 **What if, the Chains of Reality: Divinity Reborn fic, was done with the genderbended characters?**

 **And yes, this'll just be a one-shot. I briefly humored the idea to make it a spin-off I'd update after every story arc, but then I decided against it because, as much as I'd like to try explore this idea some more, I already have my hands full with the main story.**

 **So, yeah, this is just a fun little one-shot, made just for fun. I hope you like it. And remember, R &R :)**

* * *

In the middle of a black void sat a young pre-teen girl, with long white hair, an orange sleeveless shirt, pleated skirt, and white shoes with red highlights. In front of this girl, a pair of giant, orange glowing eyes opened, sporting spades-shaped pupils.

"Liberty, wake up."

The white-haired girl opened her eyes and looked up to see the glowing eyes staring strictly at her.

She then waved her hand at the eyes and frowned, "H-Hi, Proto-Me!"

The eyes narrowed themselves.

"Right, you don't like to be called that, and you also don't like to be called "Slavery" despite being a perfect counter part to my name... well, the name you gave me," Liberty scratched her chin and snapped her fingers. "How about Libby?"

The eyes' glow intensified, and the entire void turned orange and shook as the voice shouted:

"I refuse such a horrible name! You will call me by the name I ordered you to call me! Which is?!"

Liberty, terrified at the sudden change, shouted, "L-Linka!"

The voice calmed down, and so did the whole void. "And what name did I give you?"

Liberty put a hand on her shoulder and frowned before sighing, "Liberty."

"Liberty?" the voice asked, raising an eyebrow.

Liberty narrowed her eyes and looked elsewhere. "Liberty the Copycat."

The voice chuckled with a mocking tone, and their laughter echoed across the empty void before they stopped, then asked, "How's your training doing?"

"It's been going more or less fine, I've watched my brothers train before, I've managed to write down all the notes I need in my notebook," Linka recapped, sighing for a moment before adding, "It's all the same as before, Mom."

"Good, I'm glad you're actually putting some effort into not being a disappointment. Maybe in a couple of years, I'll actually face you, rather than having to be a giant pair of eyeballs," the voice stated. "But enough with you, I've grown tired of your presence. Now..."

 ** _Back in reality..._**

"Wake up!"

Linka woke up to find herself back in her room, her eldest brothers, Loki and Loni, watching over her. Loni looked slightly worried, while Loki glanced at his phone, clearly disinterested.

"Oh, hi Loki, Loni," Linka greeted, scratching the back of her head as she asked, "Sorry, my counterpart contacted me in my dreams again. She checked up on my progress with the training, I told her it was fine, and she accepted it."

"But, Linka, you haven't, like, practiced any of the moves we've shown you," Loni remarked, crouching down to Linka's height. "You only stay at the sidelines and write down stuff on your notebook every once in a while. I know you always say it's better to do that, because the chances of you getting hurt are minimal, but this can only work for so long before you land at the battlefield!"

"Loni, calm down, Linka knows what she's doing," Loki replied, putting a hand on his brother's shoulder. "After all, each and every single one of us made the agreement that Linka would join us in the fight, but only if she felt like it. And besides, we need to hone our skills to make sure we don't forget any important powers we may have, to rule the world and everything."

"But Linka's destiny is to, like, rule the world alongside us," Loni pointed out. "And to be perfectly frank, although I'm not really called Frank, it would be better if Linka at least joined us in our training, if only for a couple seconds. After all, powers are useless if you don't know how to use them."

Linka rolled her eyes, for this wasn't the first time Loni had acted like this. "Alright, Loni, you win. I'll train with you guys."

The fashionista guy raised his fist in victory, and strolled to the backyard in joy as Linka got off her bed and headed to her closet.

"Are you sure you feel comfortable giving in to Loni's demands?" Loki asked, folding his arms and raising a concerned eyebrow. "I mean, everybody knows your supposed "Destiny" as the successor to your progenitor counerpart, and the job doesn't involve fighting in the slightest."

"Loki, I know what you mean; As the future Mother of Everything, I need to practice my flexibility and fertility in order to be capable of giving birth to a whole new world, but I also have all of these amazing powers at my disposal, which you and my brothers also share, true, but it can't hurt to learn how to use them myself, right?" Linka argued before waving her hand at the young man. "Now please get out of here, I need to get dressed."

Loki rolled his eyes and obliged, leaving Linka alone to get dressed in her usual attire for the day. The girl promptly walked downstairs and towards the backyard, only for her attention to be caught when somebody knocked the door. So she ran to the door and opened it.

Outside on the front door was Claudia, the female version of Clyde, who immediately turned to the white-haired girl and tackled her to the ground, right before Ron Andy, Ronnie Anne's male counterpart, barged into the house, riding a medium-sized bird made of lighting.

Ron Andy promptly crashed on the backyard, giving the girls the cue to get off and stand up.

"I should've seen that coming," Linka said as she dusted herself. "He's such a perky boy when it comes to learning new powers. Remember when he discovered he could control lighting?"

"Yeah, that was a mess that took way longer to clean up than I'd like to remember," Claudia answered, rolling her eyes at the memory. "Seriously, that guy's something else."

Suddenly, Claudia realized something. "In fact, didn't he just crash-land at the place your brothers are training?"

The girls realized what this could mean, and immediately headed to the backyard, where they saw Loki and Luke holding back Ron Andy and Lynn respectively. The latter had electricity surging around him, while the former sported a smug smirk.

"Let me go, Luke!" Lynn yelled, flailing his arms up and down. "I need to show this punk a lesson! Nobody throws a freaking lighting bird and gets away with it!"

"Aw, don't feel so upset, Lynn," Ron Andy mockingly sneered. "It's not my fault my bird saw you as the worm you are!"

Lane chuckled, earning an angry look from Lynn. "Well, you have to admit, that was a good one."

Lynn freed himself from Lane's grasp and as Ron was let go by Loki, who gave him an angry look as the girls approached the Hispanic boy.

Linka folded her arms. "I thought you were planning to convince people you weren't a bully anymore?"

Ron Andy got up and explained, "Yeah, but here's the deal: I can only try so hard with people I don't like, and I specially don't like Lynn, 'cause he's rude, aggressive, and sore in every sense."

Claudia remained silent, prompting Linka to ask, "Aren't you going to say something in Lynn's defense?"

"I actually agree with his description of Lynn, for the most part," Claudia nonchalantly said, before smirking, "Though, I'll say this: Your words about Lynn apply to you just as much, Ron."

"I know, but I'm definitely the more tolerable of the two," Ron answered with a confident smile, with the girls rolling their eyes as he asked, "So, wanna hang out now, Linka?"

"I have to stay here and train with my brothers," Linka turned to watch her remaining brothers trying to get Lynn to calm down. "After all, Loni's just going to keep getting worked up about it if I don't join and at least spar with them a little."

"Fair enough, then, we'll stick around," Claudia stated as she and Ron Andy walked to the sidelines. "We don't have anything else to do, and we can't stand each other without you, so it's better if we wait until you're available."

"And hey, if we get to see some cool fights, that's a neat bonus!" Ron Andy gave the girl a pair of thumbs up. "Just make sure you don't pick an opponent that's too strong."

Linka nodded, then turned to Lynn and whistled, getting his attention as she inquired, "Hey Lynn, would you like to spar?"

"Aw, Linka, do you even need to ask?" Lynn smirked. "I definitely need to get some pent out frustration after what your "Friend" Ron Andy did, and a fight sounds like just the thing that will calm me down!"

"Um, are you sure that's such a good idea, Linka?" Loni pointed out, getting the duo's attention. "Not the fight itself, I do think facing off against one of us is a decent way to start your combat training, but is Lynn really a good first time partner for you? I mean, he's easily the most aggressive and violent of us."

Lynn folded his arms and stated, "I'll take that as a compliment!"

"Loni, you're just a worrywart no matter the circumstances, aren't you? I'll be fine, it'll just be a quick sparring match," Linka said as she and Lynn went to opposite extremes of the backyard. "Now, Loki, could you count us down?"

Lynn cracked his knuckles and stretched for a moment, while Linka just took a deep breath and quickly checked her notes before she put on a battle stance. Loki got in between the pair, and raised his arm before counting down:

"Ready... set... go!"

Loki leaped into the sidelines mere moments before Lynn started running at high speeds, with Linka barely being able to register where the guy went before he gently punched her all over her body, ending it by slapping her right in the butt.

"Lynn, I know you can do better than this," Linka stated as her brother stopped and dusted himself. "Don't understimate me: Come at me with everything you got!"

"Ohoho, someone wants to play rough, huh?" Lynn folded his arms. "Fair enough, I'll give you what you want!"

The boy sped up once more, and moments before he punched Linka, this time going up at full strength, Linka raised her arm and covered it in crystal, successfully blocking Lynn's incoming punch as Lexx applauded and whistled for Linka, with Leif joining in once Linka blocked another one of Lynn's punches by doing the same thing with her remaining arm, only she covered it in rock instead.

Lynn smirked with slight pride as he and Linka pushed each other away, Linka uncovering her arms as Lynn ran in place before bursting towards Linka, curling up into a ball in the process to basically become a living fireball. However, his sister simply took a deep breath, and let out a titanic scream that sent the flames away, with Luke giving Linka a thumbs up once she stopped screaming.

However, though his flames were extinguished, Lynn continued to roll towards Linka, who smiled and quipped:

"You seem to be on a roll today, Lynn!"

Linka curled up into a ball and was ricocheted towards Lynn as Lane clapped and chuckled. The duo clashed and spun as hard as they could, trying to overpower each other with sheer strength, until the sheer force sent them both flying up in the air, although Linka managed to recompose herself quickly enough to form a hammer made of light to smack Lynn downwards with it.

And as the jock crashed on the ground, Lars smiled and said "nice" with slight satisfaction.

Linka fell, and covered her arm with fire while Lynn got up, dusted himself, and covered his arm in fire as well, smiling with anticipation as Linka got closer to him. And once they were close enough, the kids clashed their fire fists together, causing a small explosion that sent them both flying off, Linka crashing onto her brothers, while Lynn crashed on the tree, causing it to topple and fall over.

Once the explosion cloud had dissipated, everybody calmed down and Linka and Lynn caught their breath as they got up and walked to meet each other. They both had some ash on their face, and their upper clothes were partially torn, with Lynn barely having a sleeve left, and Linka's midriff was shown.

However, one particular detail that caught Lynn's attention was that, while his arm was perfectly fine, Linka's arm was horribly burnt, it looked like it would fall apart at any minute, in fact!

"Linka, your arm!" Lynn exclaimed, grabbing his sister as she started wobbling around. "How much force did you put into that fist?!"

Linka took several deep breaths, before weakly answering, "You went all out, and so did I."

Linka collapsed and lost consciousness soon afterwards, with the last thing she heard being "Linka?!" being shouted by all her brothers before everything went black.

Once she regained consciousness, the first thing Linka was Ron Andy looking at Claudia as she bluntly explained, "And then, suddenly, one day and without any reason, all of mankind became offended by everything."

"Wow, that's so mind blowing, and so real when you think about it!" Ron Andy remarked in shock, before turning around to see Linka staring at the duo. "Oh hey, you're up!"

Linka fulled opened her eyes and took a quick look around, seeing that she was back at her bedroom, with her burnt arm now wrapped completely in bandages. And then she heard Loki shout from outside her room:

"We're also out here! There's not enough room for us and your friends in there, so that's why your friends are inside alone!"

"Got it!" Linka shouted. "By the way, tell Lynn to not be so fussed up about the burnt arm thing; I chose to go all out against him, it's not his fault!"

"You couldn't have told me that before I gave him the scolding of a lifetime!?" Loni shouted, calming down before adding, "I'll be sure to tell him later! For now, just rest, alright? Lexx will come heal you up in a second, he's busy with something!"

"Alright then!" Linka turned her volume back to normal as she turned to Ron And Claudia. "He's probably trying to put on his "healer" crown. Lexx has this weird quirk or whatever that he has a crown for every kind of situation, and he becomes more competent for one situation if he wears a specific crown, I think."

"Hey, Linka, while you're getting healed up, there's something we need to ask you," Ron Andy remarked, getting the snow-haired girl's attention. "We were in the middle of one of our usual bouts, which Claudia started this time-"

Claudia jabbed Ron in the shoulder before resuming, "And we suddenly came across this!"

The dark-skinned girl reached for her back and took out a plush bunny that looked surprisingly similar to Bun-Bun, but with a red shirt, purple skirt, and poofy blonde hair.

"Aw, she's so adorable!" Linka brushed the Not-Bun-Bun's hair with her healthy hand, causing the toy to blush. "Where did you find it?"

"We just came across it while we were walking around," Ron shrugged. "We were wondering if it belonged to you, or if not, if you had any idea who this toy bunny belonged to?"

"No, I'm afraid this is the first time I've seen this toy," Linka grabbed her Bun-Bun nearby and showed it to her friends. "And besides, I already have my own Bun-Bun here, and one Bun-Bun is enough for me."

The Bun-Buns looked at each other, and the Bun-Bun with hair's eyes shrank as the other Bun-Bun tilted their head in confusion. The haired Bun-Bun started shaking, prompting Claudia to grip the Bun-Bun moments before she flailed her arms wildly at the other Bun-Bun, who hid behind Linka in fear.

However, for some reason, the haired Bun-Bun calmed down once the other toy bunny was out of sight. Bun-Bun peeked out of hiding, and the haired Bun-Bun shook and growled, only calming down once the toy bunny went into hiding once more.

"Huh, well, that's something to consider, at least," Linka remarked as Claudia put the haired Bun-Bun back where she got her. "Listen, when Lexx heals me up, we're gonna go out and try to find this toy's owner, alright?"

"Yeah, good idea," Ron Andy nodded and scratched his chin. "Maybe we should get out of here, too, just in case it starts getting all angry and animalistic like just now."

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I agree with you, we need to go away from other Bun-Buns," Claudia brushed Linka's hair. "We'll wait for you downstairs, Linka."

The girl nodded, and her friends left soon afterwards, with Linka's Bun-Bun coming out of hiding again once they closed the door. Bun-Bun walked closer to Linka's healthy arm, and the girl hugged the little toy to calm him down.

 ** _A couple hours later..._**

Linka, now fully healed, held the haired Bun-Bun in her arms while Ron Andy and Claudia walked by her side. Her friends, however, couldn't help but notice how the haired Bun-Bun was practically hugging Linka as tightly as their fluffly hands could, with Linka trying her hardest to ignore the insane shower of affection.

"Okay, so to recap: We're gonna go look for people, and we'll ask them if the Bun-Bun belongs to them," Ron Andy recapped. "And if we don't find their owner today, we'll just leave them with you for the time being?"

"Guys, you saw how this Bun-Bun reacted seeing _my_ Bun-Bun nearby," Linka frowned. "If I did keep this one with me for even a day, I can't help but feel that she'd make sure that she's the only Bun-Bun I have. And I don't want there to be a "filler massacre" or something thanks to her. But, since neither of you have Bun-Buns, she could stay with you instead, right?"

Ron Andy shook his head. "I'm not a big fan of bunny plush toys, so count me out of it, sorry."

Claudia sighed. "And my dads were very adamant in letting me know that I'm too old for plush toys anymore."

"Oh right, my parents think that way too," Ron Andy looked at the haired Bun-Bun. "So, if it can't stay with me, or Claudia, or even you Linka, then what are we supposed to do with it?"

"You could hand it to me."

The trio stopped and turned to look at the source of the voice, which coincidentally stood right in front of them. There was a boy with messy white hair, black eyes, a chipped tooth, and he was wearing a full black unitard with orange highlights, and a spades symbol on his chest.

"Sorry if I came out of nowhere, let me introduce myself," the boy bowed down. "My name's Link, and the Bun-Bun belongs to me."

"It doesn't look anything like you, though," Linka glanced back at Bun-Bun, then to Link. "I mean, I know there can be transfers, but I don't know-"

"I understand, but the Bun-Bun really does belong to me: It was hand-me downed to me by my..." Link paused and looked elsewhere before he added, with a nervous smile, "Older sister, and she told me to a careful grip on her. I kinda lost her after I startled her with something, though, and I've been looking for her ever since."

Link extended his hand forward. "A-Anyhow, could you please give me my Bun-Bun back?"

The trio exchanged looks, then promptly reunited to discuss this in private, whispering as they spoke:

"What do you guys think?" Linka inquired, slightly worried.

"I don't think we should trust this guy," Ron Andy stated, narrowing his eyes.

"Why not? We trust you?" Claudia scoffed. "And we continue to trust you even after all the messes you've gotten us in. I don't see why we can't spare some trust for this boy."

"Listen, we have to take a closer look at this," Ron Andy remarked, getting the girls' attention. "We tell Linka about the Bun-Bun, we deduce it doesn't belong to her. We also know it doesn't belong to either you or me. Once Linka's healed and we talk about it some more, and before we start looking for the Bun-Bun's owner, we agree that if we can't find their owner today, then it can't stay with me, you, or Linka over here. Moments after we agree on this, the Linka guy comes out of nowhere, claiming to be this plush's owner, despite the fact that it obviously doesn't resemble him in the slightest, which is easily the most common trait of all Bun-Buns!"

"Okay, you have a point, but he did say that the toy was hand-me downed by his sister," Linka interjected. "And seeing how worried he is for it, and how he hesitated before mentioning he even had a sister, I'm willing to bet he's scared of what will happen if she finds out he lost the Bun-Bun she gave him. I say that, at the very least, we should give it to him, and resume looking for the Bun-Bun's owner. And if we do find them, we'll just go look for Link again and ask him to return it to us."

Ron Andy and Claudia thought about it for a moment, before Claudia closed her eyes and sighed, "It's the best course of action."

The trio separated, and Linka promptly walked towards Linka and handed him the haired Bun-Bun, which he hugged soon afterwards.

"Thank you," Linka stated in the most grateful tone he could muster. "You don't know how worried I was that you were going to refuse to hand it back to me."

"Well, we did think about doing tha-" Ron Andy spoke, before Claudia jabbed him in the shoulder, shutting him up.

"Don't worry about it, we're happy we could find you right away," Linka added. "But try to make sure your grip on them is a bit harder, alright?"

Link chuckled. "Yeah, I'll make sure about it."

Link and Linka exchanged silent looks for a while before the boy turned around and ran away, with Linka standing there until he was no longer out of sight. However, just as she got ready to return home with her friends, the wind started blowing a little bit harder than usual, making her hair and skirt flow, which was the same for Ron and Claudia.

"Huh, that's weird," Ron looked up at the sky. "Today's not supposed to be a windy day, right?"

The looming shadow that covered the trio soon proved that yes, it wasn't a windy day, and something else was causing the wind. And though Claudia and Ron looked at the shadow in confusion, Linka looked at it with fear, with her terrified expression remaining frozen on her face as she turned to look up at... a spades-shaped spaceship soaring through the sky, with several smaller, equally-shaped spaceships flying past it.

As soon as the looming spaceship left and sped to the same direction Link ran off to, Linka finally spoke, "Oh no."

The duo of Ron and Claudia exchanged worried looks, then asked, "Is something wrong, Linka?"

"Guys..." Linka shivered, her vision solely focused on the road the ships were heading. "That's a chain breaker ship!"

Mere seconds passed before Linka ran off towards the direction Link ran off, with Ron and Claudia joining her as soon as they shook off the shock. Fortunately for them, the spaceships stationed themselves at the city square, which wasn't that far off from their current point.

Unfortunately, Link stopped right there as well.

 ** _At the city square..._**

Link paced back and forth as he waited for the lower section of the Spadeship to pick him, which it did a couple seconds afterwards. However, once he found himself on top of the ship, rather than inside of it, the boy felt a chill go down her spine as he turned around and saw that there was somebody waiting for him.

This someone was a girl that looked almost exactly like Liberty, but with slightly longer hair, and she was wearing a black combo of a sleeveless bodysuit, fingerless opera gloves, and boots, all of which had orange highlights.

"At last you find the stupid Bun-Bun," the Linka look-alike snatched the haired Bun-Bun and held her by the ears as she scoffed, "To think it took you longer than a second to catch a simple little Bun-Bun is ridiculous!"

"Y-You know Bun-Buns are pretty quick on their feet when they're startled!" Link exclaimed. "This one got really frightened when the dimension jump happened, so-"

"Every second we waste is another second that the progenitors will snap at me for seemingly slacking at my job!" the Linka look-alike snapped before slapping the boy. "And if they take out their anger on me, I'll take out my anguish on you in return!"

"Hey!"

The look-alike and Link turned around and saw Linka, Claudia, and Ron Andy running towards the duo, with Linka charging an orange energy sphere before she yelled, "Leave Link alone!"

The girl threw the energy sphere at the look-alike, but she simply flickered it away, with the ensuing explosion causing the trio to stop right on their tracks.

"Well, if it isn't the little mistake herself," the Linka lookalike stated before turning to the boy. "I see you already met Link, this obnoxious troublemaker over here. But, I guess it can't be helped if you're the lovechild of our mother and another Lincoln."

Linka, Claudia, and Ron Andy flinched at the revelation, Link was a lovechild between basically a male and female Lincoln? That's probably why he looked like a slight mix of both, but that thought was soon replaced with shock when the Linka look-alike grabbed Link by the neck of his outfit and pulled him closer to her.

"I told you to find the missing Bun-Bun, and come back to the ship right away!" the look-alike snapped before slapping Link, leaving behind a handprint on his cheek. "You're lucky Mom would never allow me to kill someone who shared her, otherwise, you'd be dead right on the spot! Now go get the engines started before-"

Suddenly, a lighting bolt was shot at the duo's direction, but they simply leaped out of the way before they got hit. Recognizing the light blue color of the bolt, Liberty narrowed her eyes and gritted her teeth as the Loud brothers soon entered the scene, except for Leon and Levi. Immediately recognizing them as a threat, Liberty eyed Link, and the boy promptly touched the spades symbol on his outfit, causing him to generate as many eidoloud versions of himself as there were brothers, before sending them off to fight the brothers, keeping them distracted as the look-alike and Link stood up and dusted themselves.

"Link... is what she's saying true?" Linka asked as she leaped up and landed in front of the boy. "Are you... a lovechild between a male and a female Lincoln?"

Link hesitated, but he soon closed his eyes and nodded somberly, which was soon followed up by the Linka look-alike kicking Linka back to Ron Andy and Claudia, who caught her as the spades-ship got ready to fly off.

"As much as I'd love to beat some sense into you and your friends, I simply don't have time for all this melodrama," Liberty swayed her hair to the right and stated, "Unlike you, I actually have a job: Lead the chain breakers across the dimensions, and free the progenitors from their shackles so they can lead the universe to a greater era, brought on by Loudgeddon!"

Ron Andy and Claudia raised confused eyebrows, but Linka narrowed her eyes, seemingly having an idea of what the rip-off was talking about. And then the rip-off turned to face Linka, smugly smiled, and stated:

"See you later... sister..."

Ron Andy and Claudia's eyes grew wide as Linka gritted her teeth, with the spades-ship flying out of the dimension moments afterwards, which was followed by the eidolinks the brothers fought with vanishing as well. With that done, they reunited with the trio.

"Are you guys okay?!" Loni asked, crouching down to check up on Linka. "Did she hurt you, Linka?"

The girl looked at the sky for a little bit before she shook her head and sighed, "Let's just... go back home for now."

Seeing the girl wasn't feeling all that well, the brothers and her friends immediately nodded in agreement and helped her get back home, with Linka looking at the sky the whole way back.

 ** _Later at night, on the Loud house..._**

Linka sat on the couch, twiddling her fingers as she looked at the ground with a contemplative look. One that looked like it had a little mix of worry as well, almost as if, whoever that look-alike of hers was, she somehow managed to get under her skin. And normally, this would be the point where one of the brothers would try to comfort her, like they usually did, but the... atmosphere Linka gave, made it clear she simply wanted to be alone.

Well, alone, in the sense that she didn't want her brothers around. But that didn't exactly include Ron Andy and Claudia, who came out of the kitchen soon afterwards.

"Okay, we just talked with our parents, and they'll let us stay here for a little while longer," Claudia stated as she and Ron Andy sat to Linka's side. "But only long enough to ask you a couple questions, and see if you need something. Once that's done, they want us to go back home immediately."

"Until then, though, we'll be right here by your side," Ron Andy stated with a little smile.

"Thanks, guys... thanks a lot," Linka sighed. "Listen, I know you probably have a lot of questions in your mind, and I may have some answers. So, just to see if I can clear my head or something, ask me anything, I'll try to answer you."

"Okay, first and foremost," Claudia put a hand on Linka's shoulder. "Who was that girl that looked almost exactly like you?"

Ron Andy scratched his chin. "And why did she call you "sister"?"

Linka took a deep breath, then explained:

"When my counterpart created the world, she gave birth two successors: The first one was the girl we saw, the head of the chain breakers, Liberty. I was the second successor to be born, and the moment we could move and think, she put us through tests to determine who would become field commander of the chain breakers, and who would train to replace her."

Linka looked elsewhere as she continued:

"Liberty reached, even surpassed, her expectations, with good control over all the powers she's supposed to have. Meanwhile, I failed to even master one power, so she left me in the new world to control my powers, while Liberty got a job, and "Mom"'s pride."

"Which is why she calls you "Liberty the Copycat," right?" Ron Andy asked, before adding, "But, you did say that the options were to either become field commander for those chain breakers, or become Proto-Linka's successor as the goddess of the world, right? Doesn't that mean you got the better deal out of the two?"

Linka narrowed her eyes and got off the couch. "I would, if "Mom" didn't try everything in her power to make sure I regretted "earning" the role, and the fact I dragged you two into this as well is-"

Linka paused, realizing what she was about to say.

She then fell silent, walked to the backyard and leaned against the wall, folding her arms as she turned to look up at the sky... where the moon was giving off an orange-ish glow, despite the rest of the sky looking as dark blue and as filled with stars as always. As her hair blew in the wind, Linka continued to stare silently at the moon, and continued to stare at it as Ron and Claudia walked to her side.

"Linka?" Ron Andy blurted, trying to get the white-haired gal's attention. "Listen, we might not understand the whole picture or scale of this entire conflict with you, your sister, the other dimensions, the chain breakers, the progenitors, Linkanity... actually, now that I just listed those few elements, just how many dang conflicts are there?"

Claudia, unimpressed by Ron's botched attempt at getting Linka's attention, walked past him and went to Linka's side before stating:

"What Ron's trying to say is, we know that we don't really know that much about... anything related to the progeny, and you told me about this in a spurr on the moment, but that doesn't mean it was a big mistake or anything. Ron and I have been able to deal with the revelations just fine, and besides, as your best friend, I would never betray or leave you. I'm not so sure about Ron, though-"

"Of course I wouldn't betray her or anything! And not just because she would take it out on me once she became a goddess!" Ron Andy walked to Linka's opposite side. "The three of us are in this together, whether any of us like it or not. What matters is that we stick together, and try to survive until you can replace your counterpart as the ruler of this dimension."

Linka, though flattered by the statement, looked at the ground and somberly said, "But the thing is, we're going to get involved in a lot of dangerous stuff, specially now that you've seen Liberty and how she tends to act. Now that she knows about the three of us, next time we meet her, she'll undoubtedly try to kill us, or use you for her advantage."

"So what?" Ron put his arms behind his head. "Just because she'll try doesn't mean she'll succeed!"

"We'll be with you to the very end, Linka," Claudia put a hand on Linka's shoulder. "Even if that means going to the very core of the universe and facing your counterpart head on, we'll be with you, no matter what."

Linka looked up and glanced to see her friends' determined smiles, which brought a relieved smile to her face. "Thanks, guys."

The trio shared a hug, and Linka looked back at the moon as she thought:

" _Because I'm gonna need as much help as I can._ "


End file.
